A Number of Hurt as Turbulence Hits Delta Aircraft Arriving in Sydney

A number of individuals sustained injuries following a Delta Airlines jet from LA to Sydney was hit by significant turbulence this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it touched down at Sydney Airport, a company official stated. Several cabin crew members sustained injuries.

Local paramedics reported they treated a total of five people, and transferred a trio to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that comprised spinal discomfort and migraines. Those affected ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.

The event represents the most recent case of aircraft being hit by turbulence, with researchers pointing out that global warming is a key driver.

On board were 245 passengers and 15 crew members on the Airbus A350, the official said, stating that the plane arrived "safely" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they received a call just three minutes prior to the plane touched down, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.

Why in-flight bumpiness is getting increasingly prevalent - and often stronger.

Last year, twenty-five passengers and crew were injured when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "severe" rough air just two hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight went through a frightening brief five-second of severe turbulence. One passenger passed away and numerous people sustained injuries, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and crashed back down.

In-flight turbulence is fairly routine during flights, and while occurrences of strong or severe turbulence appear to be increasing, they are still very rare.

Research indicates that there are an estimated thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence annually, out of a total of over 35 million aircraft departures that are conducted globally.

Severe turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a aircraft experiencing unstable air exert greater than 1.5g-force on your body - enough to lift you out of your seat if you did not have on a safety belt.

As a changing climate shifts weather patterns, specialists caution that flying could become less smooth: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are projected to increase the frequency and intensity of dangerous in-flight bumps.